Since June 2021, all applications for international protection submitted by nationals of Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh throughout the Greek territory are examined under the safe third country concept pursuant to JMD 42799/2021, as amended by JMD 485868/2021 and 734214/2022. Based on this new policy, asylum applications of people from the aforementioned five nationalities are not examined on the basis of their individual circumstances and the risks they face in their country of origin. Instead, they are presumed to be safe in Türkiye, and only if Türkiye is proven not to be safe, these applications are deemed ‘admissible’, and the competent decision authorities proceed to the examination of their applications on the merits. Three out of the five nationalities mentioned in the JMD 42799/03.06.2021 are amongst those with the highest recognition rate in Greece. In 2020, before the adoption of said JMD, 92% of Syrians, 66% of Afghans, and 94% of Somalis (median acceptance rate: 84%) received refugee or subsidiary protection status.824 Continued application of the safe third country concept despite the lack of prospects of removal to Türkiye In addition to the above, according to the official statistics of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum published in December 2024, ‘Returns under the EU-Türkiye Joint Statement have not been made since March 2020 due to Covid-19. It should be noted that the Greek authorities have asked the Turkish ones to resume returns in accordance with the EU-Türkiye Joint Statement’.825 Furthermore, the suspension of returns/readmissions under the EU-Türkiye Statement is publicly acknowledged by both the European Commission and the relevant Ministers of the Greek government. 826 The European Commission, in a 12 October 2022 report on Türkiye, explicitly states inter alia that ‘Türkiye maintained the suspension of returns from the Greek islands that it put in place in March 2020 […] The return of irregular migrants from the Greek islands under the EU-Türkiye Statement continued to be suspended, as it has been since March 2020’.827 In its 6th Annual report, the Commission clearly points out that Türkiye was no longer using COVID-19 as a pretext for refusing returns. In particular, the Commission recognises that: ‘[a]lthough resettlements from Türkiye resumed as of July 2020, returns from Greece remain suspended. Responding to repeated requests from the Greek authorities and the European Commission regarding the resumption of return operations, Türkiye has stated that no return operation would take place unless the alleged pushbacks along the Turkish-Greek border stop and Greece revokes its decision to consider Türkiye a Safe Third Country’.828 The Minister of Citizen Protection has explicitly stated that Türkiye refuses to implement the Statement and invokes the COVID-19 pandemic as grounds for suspending readmissions. The Minister of Migration and Asylum noted in early 2022 that “Türkiye has unilaterally suspended admission of those who do not qualify international protection since March 2020, under the pretext of COVID”. In a previous statement, the Minister stressed that Türkiye “has refused to implement its commitments, and continues to refuse to engage in any way on the issue”.829 Besides, the Readmission Unit of the Migration Management Directorate of the Hellenic Police, in response to relevant questions submitted by GCR, systematically confirms the absence of any prospect of removal of refugees from the Eastern Aegean islands to Türkiye, while the Administrative Courts competent for the judicial review of detention affirm the manifest lack of prospects of readmissions to Türkiye, highlighting that the procedure for the readmission of third-country nationals to Türkiye has already been suspended since 16 March 2020 and there is no evidence that this suspension will be lifted immediately; that the police authority has not proceeded to any action to execute the readmission decision; as well as that precondition for the readmission of third-country nationals to Türkiye is the submission of a relevant return application by the competent Greek authority. However, no requests have 824 825 826 827 828 829 GCR, EU-Türkiye Statement: Six years of undermining refugee protection, 8 NGOs warn that policies implemented in Greece keep displaced people from accessing asylum procedures, despite clear need of protection, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3tMP7GU, 1. MoMA, Report A, December 2024, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/47jnw39s, 18. European Commission, Türkiye Report 2021, SWD(2021) 290, 19 October 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3DiPMTP, p. 48; Reply to parliamentary question, Answer given by Ms Johansson on behalf of the European Commission, Question reference: P-000604/2021, 1 June 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3IIx2hW; European Commission, Commission Staff Working Document: Türkiye 2020 Report, 6 October 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3xgt4aK, 48. European Commission, Türkiye 2022 Report, SWD(2022) 333 final, 12 October 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3HmE7X0, pp. 5, 8. European Commission, Sixth Annual Report on the Facility for Refugees in Türkiye, COM(2022) 243, 24 May 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/40N9H7r, 2-3. European Commission, Sixth Annual Report on the Facility for Refugees in Türkiye, COM(2022) 243, 24 May 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3LakP8y, 3. RSA, Greece arbitrarily deems Türkiye a ‘safe third country’ in flagrant violation of rights, February 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3iIFsen, p. 3; MoMA, Request by Greece towards the EU for the immediate return 1,450 third country nationals under the Joint EU-Türkiye Statement, 14 January 2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3izPzmA. 161